FPV Pan-Tilt Cam Mount

This is my first Pan-Tilt mount. The FPV Fiberglass Pan-Tilt Camera Mount L-Size looks nice and is easy to build and cheap to buy. For the Cam I use I had to dremel a little so the Cam plug would fit. As for the OSD plug I had to dremel too. Now I can use the OSD-cable on the field without any hassle. Don’t forget to glue the 2 round pieces with some CA, else you will loose these during landing for sure. Don’t ask me how I know. After about 20 flights I got some slop on high speed dives. I solved this by adding some CA to sloppy places. Don’t fixate the bearings as we still love to tilt too.

I started with 2 HXT900 servo’s. Then Elmar modded the HXT900 pan servo for me so it could swing 180 degrees. I liked the 180 degree look but did not like the modded HXT900 that much. The modded HXT900 had (like all HXT900) a talent for jittering, uneven endpoint, variable endpoints, non smooth movement, when using maximum endpoints the servo had a tendency to override the stop without centering afterwards. Turdsurfer on YouTube told me about the cheap Turnigy TGY-R5180MG analog & Turnigy TGY-180D digital 180 degree servos at Hobbyking. I went for the analog version as I do not like the buzzing sounds of a digital servo, also the analog one is slower which is better for me. The Turnigy TGY-R5180MG has a larger swing then the modded HXT900, it’s metal geared and is more silent.

The video cam came with very stiff wires which are not suited for panning & tilting. The original wires were cut off close to the connector and changed for servo wire. I also installed a strange kind of ferrite ring to decrease possible interference. It is wise to fixate the cam wires so the connector doesn’t come loose during cam movements. I my case the strange ferrite ring also fixates the camera wire. Afterwards I used ti-rips to bundle the wires. Keep in mind that there is enough free wire to support the complete pan & tilt motion. Else your servo will bind.

I have my pan movement installed on my rudder stick. I do not use rudder for stearing. Only elevator & ailerons. Tilt I have on a turn-knob on the left side of my T9X.

To protect the cam pcb from moist and drops I added a thin layer of silicone paste.

Mixer Update
After 1 season of rudderless flying, I really started missing the rudder function. So I activated the rudder and mixed it with ailerons. This way the rudder moves automatically when I move the aileron stick. The mix can be activated by flipping a switch.

I also made a mix for pan & tilt. Most of the time when panning I like to look more down too. So I mixed the tilt function with the pan function. When I pan right the cam tilts down along the movement.